Despite repetitive gameplay, the story in Lost Planet 3 redeems this chilly prequel.

Is 2013 the year of the prequel? Publishers seem to be running out of forward-thinking story ideas so quickly that they’ve resorted to going back to origin stories en masse. This year we’ve already seen prequels for Gears of War, Tomb Raider, God of War, XCOM and then Batman’s Arkham franchise in October.

The thing with prequels is that we’re visiting a character or story already knowing how it ends. It’s potentially difficult to create any drama in the storyline because we already know the outcome. For Capcom’s Lost Planet 3, however, that’s not a problem.

Lost Planet 3 takes places decades before the first Lost Planet game, where the planet E.D.N. III is still an ice world (in Lost Planet 2, the ice was melted and it became a tropical environment). You play as Jim Peyton, a contractor hired by construction company NEVEC to help harvest T-Energy, a valuable mineral on the planet and inside the planet’s creatures, which could help humans back on Earth.

But Peyton’s sole purpose is just to make enough money to take care of his wife and young son back on Earth. That is, until he finds out the truth about NEVEC and E.D.N. III.

The gameplay unfolds in two stages, the first as a third-person shooter and then as a first-person mech game. While on the ground, you have a grappling hook to help you get to hard-to-reach places, you’re able to carry a pistol at all times, grenades and your choice of two larger weapons

Your larger weapons — shotgun, hunting rifle, assault rifle, crossbow, pulse rifle and others — are all upgradeable with one or two components (mostly to carry more ammo or make them more powerful). For the most part, however, the weapons aren’t all that interesting, especially since the action in the game gets really repetitive.

There are a variety of creatures, called Akrid, which are continually up in your face in both the open environments and confined spaces. You take them out run-and-gun style, along with the bigger boss Akrid, where you can dodge their attacks, shoot the glowing parts of their bodies, lather, rinse and repeat. The third-person gameplay wouldn’t feel so unexciting if it featured cooler, more creative weapons and the enemies died in different ways — instead of just exploding the same way no matter which weapon you use.

In previous Lost Planet games players were equipped with a Vital Suit (VS), a mechanized device that boasts guns, rocket launchers, boosters, etc. In Lost Planet 3, you are working with a construction rig that has a drill, a large claw and other components that are added later, like a wrench and a blowtorch. Being inside the rig breaks up some of the monotony of the action, allowing you to pick up Akrid with your claw and drill through their bellies. But throughout the whole game you’re thinking, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have some guns on this bad boy, too?”

There’s also multiplayer modes that feature different variations of the usual team deathmatch and capture the flag, with an upgrade system to customize multiplayer characters. The multiplayer also has the Vital Suits from previous games and team battles against Akrid.

Despite all the shortcomings with the gameplay, it was the solo campaign’s story that kept me coming back. The game is well-written and well-acted with its share of twists and turns and surprises throughout. The banter between Peyton and his wife through video messages seems authentic and later, I came to actually care about the same things and people that Peyton cared about and hoped for a satisfactory resolution. The game is not a must-have but could be worth checking out — unless you want to save your money for the more anticipated prequels coming out in a few months.

A&E reporter John Wenzel has covered a variety of topics for The Denver Post over the years, including video games, comedy, music and the fine arts. He's been playing and loving video games since his dad brought home a sweet ColecoVision in 1983. Catch him on PSN as beardsandgum.

Hugh got his start writing for the Cheyenne and Woodmen Edition newspapers in Colorado Springs. In 2011 he moved to Denver where he has written for Denver Urban Spectrum and Colorado Community Media’s Wheat Ridge Transcript. Hugh joined The Denver Post in 2014 as an editorial assistant.

Bryan Moore joined The Denver Post sports department in 1997 and has worked in many phases of producing the daily sports section ever since, specifically focusing on coverage of the Denver Broncos, Colorado Rockies, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and college football and basketball.